"Hey! Get off me!"
Cu Chulainn's muffled groan rose from beneath the weight of the new arrival. Rikuo, having been thrown from his Reality Marble by the Berserker's violent counter-surge, looked down at the man he was currently pinning to the dirt.
"Oh... it's you," Rikuo said, blinking as he recognized the Lancer. He stood up, dusting off his kimono with a detached sort of grace.
"Don't give me that 'Oh, it's you' crap! What the hell are you doing falling out of the sky?!" Cu Chulainn stood up, his eyes wide with annoyance. The sudden impact had genuinely caught him off guard.
"I ran into something... problematic. We were in the middle of a disagreement."
Rikuo turned toward the edge of the clearing. Emerging from the shadows was a hulking, muscular figure, its body covered in a network of bleeding shallow cuts--the Berserker.
"?"
"Ho, a new Servant? He looks like he's seen better days, but that aura... it's definitely not standard."
Cu Chulainn shifted his weight, his grip tightening on his spear. He could feel the oily, malevolent energy radiating from the newcomer. This wasn't just a mindless beast; there was something profoundly evil guiding its movements.
"Lancer, is it?"
"I still have a score to settle with you for the way you treated me in that void."
The Berserker's wounds began to knit together with unnatural speed, the flesh bubbling and sealing in a matter of seconds. The Shikon Jewel, speaking through the creature's vocal cords, fixed its gaze on the Irishman with palpable malice.
"You're still alive? Honestly, you people are more persistent than cockroaches," Cu Chulainn said, scratching the back of his head with a look of genuine exhaustion. He remembered clearly the feeling of his Noble Phantasm striking that creature inside the enclosed dimension. It should have been a killing blow.
'What's going on? [Nenekirimaru] clearly drew blood, and yet...'
Rikuo's brow furrowed. He had expected the anti-youkai properties of his blade to at least slow the creature's regeneration, but the Shikon Jewel seemed entirely unaffected by its effects.
"I see... so the gem really has developed a mind of its own. Remarkable," Koga said, stepping forward.
This was his first time seeing the Shikon Jewel in this "embodied" form. It explained why Naraku's own demonic energy had felt so much thinner lately; the Jewel had effectively gone rogue, striking out on its own.
"You claim you can grant any wish, and yet here you are, chasing after the Dragon Balls like a hungry dog," Koga said, his voice dripping with mockery. "Seems like a bit of a contradiction, don't you think?"
He watched the Berserker carefully, looking for even the slightest shift in its posture. "Tell me, if you're so powerful, why do you need the Dragon Balls at all?"
"..."
The Shikon Jewel didn't respond, its expression remaining a mask of cold indifference. But Koga wasn't finished.
"Is it because you can't do it? Is that the truth?"
At that, the Jewel's composure finally cracked. It didn't say a word, but the sudden, sharp drop in the surrounding temperature spoke volumes.
"I thought so. You're nothing but a fraud--the ultimate lie!"
"If you really had the power you claim, you'd have teamed up with Naraku to hunt down Kagome's final fragment ages ago. You could have made your 'wish' and won this war before it even started. But instead, you're here, trying to steal someone else's miracles."
Koga let out a short, harsh laugh. "No wonder the Great Dog Demon and the others treated you with such contempt. You really are just... a piece of junk. A Waste of a Jewel."
The memory of the countless tragedies the Jewel had sparked--the misery it had brought to both humans and yokai--boiled in Koga's blood. It had never brought happiness; it had only brought suffering. And if it couldn't even fulfill its own purpose, then it had no right to exist.
WHOOSH!
The Berserker moved. In the blink of an eye, it was in Koga's personal space, its fist aimed directly at his head.
!
CLANG!
SHARK!
A spear and a blade crossed in front of Koga, intercepting the massive fist from both sides.
BOOM!
"What's the matter? Did the truth hurt your feelings?"
"That's not very professional of you."
Cu Chulainn twisted his spear, the blunt end of the haft catching the Berserker in the chest and sending it skidding backward. He looked at the monster's changed expression with a look of pure amusement.
"Lancer, Rider... three of us against one of him," Rikuo said, his voice calm and melodic. "Shall we finish this 'Waste of a Jewel' right here?"
"I have no objections," Cu Chulainn replied, his grin widening.
"Heh. Sounds like a plan to me."
The three warriors stood side-by-side, their combined auras filling the clearing with a staggering amount of pressure.
"Tch. You think the three of you are enough to kill me?"
The Shikon Jewel sneered, its eyes scanning the trio with utter disdain. To its eyes, neither the Rider nor the Lancer possessed the "conceptual" power required to end its life.
"You're all just wasting your breath. I'll show you the true meaning of futility!"
"Red Dragon Wave!!"
"Wait, what?"
Moroha watched in disbelief as her signature move--a spiraling torrent of crimson fire--struck the Demon-Yokai only to be instantly swallowed, as if absorbed by a sponge.
"They can absorb energy?!"
"When did these things become so annoying to fight?"
She looked at the small army of monsters blocking their path, her brow furrowed in frustration.
"Wind Scar!!!"
"What? Even Grandpa's energy is being absorbed?!"
Moroha's jaw dropped as she witnessed the massive energy wave from Toga's `[Tessaiga]` being sucked into the bodies of the nearby demons.
"Nng-gh... GA-AAAAHHH!!"
But the moment of triumph for the demons was short-lived. A split second after absorbing the energy, their expressions twisted into masks of agony. Their bodies began to swell and glow, eventually detonating like fleshy fireworks.
"Those are the scales of the Dragon-Man tribe," Toga explained, his voice calm as he observed the aftermath. "Their people have the natural ability to siphon and store demonic energy."
"It seems someone has been grafting those scales onto these lesser demons."
Moroha nodded as she realized what was happening. "But it has a limit, doesn't it?"
"Even if they can absorb your energy, Grandpa, their bodies aren't built to contain it. They're basically just overloading themselves until they pop."
"Precisely," Toga said, sheathing the `[Tessaiga]`. "They are too weak to act as vessels for energy of that magnitude. To force them to absorb it is to sign their death warrant."
He knew the Dragon-Man tribe well, and more importantly, he knew their weaknesses.
"But who would do something like this? These things are completely different from the trash we were fighting before."
Kohaku's voice was tight with worry. He had been able to hold his own against the standard fodder, but against these "remodeled" monsters, he was practically useless. The scales provided both energy absorption and a level of physical durability that was far beyond his capacity to breach.
"They still fear the sun," Kikyo observed, leaning against a nearby tree as she watched the last of the demonic mists dissipate. "They only appear at night. I suspect that's the cost of their enhancement."
While she suspected Naraku was the architect of this evolution, the specific methodology--the grafting of biological parts--wasn't his usual style. Naraku was a creature of toxic miasma and illusions, not complex biological engineering.
"Regardless, if we keep moving toward the source, we'll find the answer soon enough."
Toga looked toward the horizon. He could sense Sesshomaru purging the path from one direction; if they pushed through from this side, they would eventually pin the architect between them.
But just as they prepared to move...
"Hmm?"
Toga's internal alarm went off. He drew the `[Tenseiga]` in one fluid motion, unleashing a massive, light-filled slash into the empty air.
`[Meido Zangetsuha]`!
The dark, crescent-shaped void was met mid-air by a massive surge of pitch-black energy, the two attacks canceling each other out in a violent shockwave that leveled the surrounding trees.
"So, it really is you..."
The group turned in the direction of the voice. Floating in the air was a tall, imposing youkai clad in black robes. He carried a massive staff, and half of his face was concealed behind a jagged white mask.
"Shishinki."
Toga called out the name with a look of recognition. He wasn't surprised; he had once used the `[Tessaiga]` to strip this man of the power to control the "Meido." It had been a definitive defeat, one that should have ended their connection.
But the world had changed, and old grudges had a way of surfacing.
"Hmph. It seems the information that man gave me was correct after all."
"I truly never expected to see you walking this earth again, Toga."
Shishinki looked down at the Great Dog Demon, his expression one of pure, unbridled hatred.
'That man?'
Kohaku caught the slip of the tongue, his brow furrowing.
"I have waited a very long time for this day, Great Dog Demon!" Shishinki shouted, his voice booming like thunder.
"I don't know why you're back, or how you've returned... but it doesn't matter!"
"This humiliation! I will repay it ten-fold!"
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]